In Understanding Pain: Exploring the Perception of Pain, Dr. Fernando Cervero does a wonderful job of condensing his 40+ years of research and immersion in the field of pain research into a concise but readable account. It's a great introduction, and it's bound to inspire a new generation of physicians and researchers.

I interviewed Dr. Cervero in BSP 93, and this month's podcast (BSP 95) is the promised second part of our discussion of pain. I focus on some of the topics that Dr. Cervero and I did not have time to discuss, including a look at how the mechanisms of acute pain differ significantly from those of chronic pain. The growing appreciation of these differences offers hope to the millions of people around the world who suffer from chronic pain, but the ongoing efforts of researchers like Dr. Cervero also offer hope of improved pain relief for everyone.

Unfortunately, for those of you who love audiobooks, Understanding Pain, is not available in audio; but it is a relatively short book (under 200 pages) that I recommend to everyone.

Dr. Fernando Cervero of McGill University has been studying pain since the beginning of his career back in the 1960s. These decades have seen tremendous advances in our neuroscientific understanding of what causes different types of pain, as well as changing attitudes. Pain was once regarded as something that most people had to endure, but now most of us demand adequate pain relief, sometimes even to the point of not tolerating minor pain. Dr. Cevero's new book, Understanding Pain, provides an accessible account of both the history of pain research and a thoughtful consideration of the challenges facing the field.

The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 93) is an interview with Dr. Cervero. This is Part 1 of a planned two-part series.

Other Announcements:

New: Brain Science Podcast listener campaign to get Dr. Campbell on Triangulation, which is an interview show on Leo Laporte's TWiT network: click here for contact information or send an email to pitches@twit.tv with BRAIN SCIENCE PODCAST in the subject line.

It is good to see that military physicians are beginning to apply some of the recent findings of neuroscience to helping injured vets, but you may also recall that when we talked with Dr. Edward Taub about stroke rehab, he reported the difficulty of getting new methods of head injury treatment into the VA clinics.